I read this earlier today on Facebook. Someone I like shared it.
Boost the hell out of this whether you’re disabled or not.
Yes. by all means, boost the hell out of this. But also remember that screen shots like this are inaccessible to many disabled people. That’s why I’ve written out the following transcript:
[Image description: a screen shot of a Facebook post from “Son of Baldwin”, written on a smart phone:
(Quote) Ableism is one of the bigotries that most of us don’t believe is actually bigotry.
There are people who legit believe disabled people are “defects” and a “drain on society” and to kill them would be “ethical and humane.”
In many ways, I believe ableism is the root bigotry of humanity. That ableism is the basis of all other bigotries. For example, sometimes, I think white racists think of black people as “defective white people.” The ability we’re lacking, in their opinion, is Whiteness
And many of us are casually ableist, use ableist speech as a matter of course, take our non-disabled privileges for granted.
And then when you try to make ableism primary in a discussion, there’s always someone there trying to silence you.
Many of us are perplexed as to why disabled folks think they should have rights. We think “They’re lucky we let them live! Fuck rights!”
Most non-disabled people don’t treat disability rights as a real thing. We’re content with using disabled people as inspiration porn.
We see disabled people as easy targets for crime. Disabled people are the most vulnerable to us and to institutions.
My least popular topics at SoB are ableism and transantagonism because most of us feel (rightly) implicated, but don’t want to be educated.
People hve flat out told me that ableism is made-up to make non-disabled people feel guilty for being “Born normal.” That’s how deep it is.
If dismantling ableism isn’t part of our social justice platforms, then our platforms are suspect.
One day, all of us will be disabled in one form or another. But that shouldn’t be the thing to make us act for disability rights.
I’m not trying to preach at y'all, but these are things I’d like us to consider. We don’t have to keep making the same mistakes. [Bold font] #Ableism
(End Quote. End description).
Reblogging because I’m in the process of working on a new about this very topic – and I wanted to cite this particular tweet.
I think the reason that
(Quote) Ableism is one of the bigotries that most of us don’t believe is actually bigotry. (Unquote)
Is that “most of us” think an attitude only counts as bigotry if it’s based on something untrue – i.e.:“Black people are intellectually weaker and physically stronger than White people,” is untrue, and therefore clearly a bigoted statement.
But “Someone with an intellectual disability is intellectually ‘weaker’ than someone without an intellectual disability,” is true - on a surface level (depending on how you distinguish between “weakness” and “difference”). So, from that perspective, calling the latter statement “bigotry” seems nonsensical – even laughable.
But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of “Bigotry.”
Bigotry is the systematic interplay between private beliefs and public policies which denies certain people full access to human society.
And, for centuries (going back at least as far as the Enlightenment) those in power have used the filter of Ability to exclude broad categories of people from being considered “Fully human,” and making up @#*+ about folks’ abilities to justify themselves.
Those of us in the Disability community who are arguing that “Ableism is a Real Bigotry, and Needs to be Fought” are not trying to say that “We” are just as strong and smart and healthy as everyone else.
We’re saying that we’re just as human as everyone else, and we deserve to be here, as much as everyone else.
The Anxiety Ninja
I have a personal story to share that encompasses invisible disabilities, mental health, and ableism. There was this time where I went to hospital emergency with my best friend because I was clean out of places to go for professional support for my anxiety, and was told that the hospital would be my best bet because there was one right beside campus where I lived.
While in the waiting room, someone who was dressed as though they were a convict (orange jumper, handcuffs, and was accompanied by police officers) appeared. My friend and I were chatting, and ended up commenting amongst ourselves about how his shoes looked like Crocs. We made some joke about how being forced to wear Crocs was pretty serious punishment. This stranger who was passing by must have caught our conversation, because she commented something along the lines of:
“Shouldn’t he be sent to the mental health ward?”
(I can’t remember the exact quote as this was several months ago, but it connected the convict to “the mental health ward”)
After this person departed, I leaned over to my friend to try and make a joke about the one thing that was on my mind: “Hey, but isn’t that where I’m going?”
This stranger didn’t know that I was there for mental health help. She didn’t know why the convict (if he even was one) was there, either. Yet the assumption was made that he had a mental illness and I did not. I catch people nearly every day making comments like these that completely ignore the fact that there are disabilities and mental health issues that do not present visibly. Furthermore, to assume that someone has something on the basis of a stereotype, appearance, or symptom, is equally as problematic.
So stop making jokes about wanting to kill yourself. Stop using “depressed”, “insane”, “OCD”, “anxious”, and ableist language as adjectives. Stop bringing up suicide like it’s juicy gossip that doesn’t hurt the people around you who hear it. Although being invisible can be a real privilege at times, there are other times where people will invalidate you directly for not looking the part, or make hurtful comments your struggles without even knowing that you have them. A piece of advice I hear all the time is that you have no way of knowing anyone’s full story and struggle. It’s time for people to start thinking about that more when it comes to issues such as this. The message of this story is also exceptionally important regarding the similar way that sexuality and gender are not visible, but are heavily stereotyped or attributed to specific behavior.
Anyways, this hospital story luckily ended in me having a doctor that had a jawline so sharp that I bet it could open a letter, my pronouns being well respected, and my friend was able to finally get some studying done without being distracted in the waiting room. Plus, I got this fantastic story to help me explain invisible disabilities and mental health.
TLDR individuals with invisible disabilities are essentially ninjas and we will hunt you down